Can I Sue for Emotional Distress in Texas?
Whether it was caused by someone’s deliberate actions, negligence, or a traumatic event, the impact of emotional distress on your mental health and overall well-being can be profound — affecting your daily life, relationships, and ability to work. You may even begin to wonder if you can sue for emotional distress.
In Texas, you can indeed sue for emotional distress under certain circumstances. However, the legal landscape for these cases can be complex, with specific requirements that must be met for a successful claim.
If you or a loved one has endured emotional distress, pain and suffering, or mental anguish at the hands of another, call the team at Grimes & Fertitta at 713-224-7644 or contact us online for representation.
What is emotional distress?
Before we talk about the specifics of suing an insurance company for emotional distress, we should first define emotional distress. Emotional distress, from a legal standpoint, is any mental anguish, pain and suffering, or emotional trauma that has been caused by whomever you are bringing a suit against. Some types of emotional distress more commonly seen in lawsuits include depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
Of the many types of damages in a lawsuit, damages for emotional distress would fall under general compensatory damages, along with other damages resulting from the overall harm that you have suffered that aren’t typically quantifiable.
Some other common types of general compensatory damages include long-term physical complications, future suffering or medical complications, and physical disfigurement or impairment that have impacted your quality of life.
Can you sue for emotional stress in Texas?
In Texas, you can sue for emotional distress, but the circumstances under which such claims are recognized are specific and limited. Texas law allows for two types of emotional distress claims:
- Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED): This occurs when someone deliberately causes severe emotional distress through extreme and outrageous conduct.
- Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress (NIED) — but only in certain situations: In Texas, NIED claims are generally not recognized as standalone cases. However, emotional distress damages can be recovered as part of other personal injury claims.
It’s important to note that Texas courts have set a high bar for emotional distress claims, particularly for IIED cases. The emotional distress must be severe, and the defendant’s conduct must be “extreme and outrageous.”
Who can you sue in an emotional distress lawsuit?
When considering an emotional distress lawsuit in Texas, several parties could potentially be held liable:
- Individuals: If someone’s actions directly caused your emotional distress, you may be able to sue them personally. This could include cases of harassment, assault, or other intentional harmful acts.
- Businesses or Organizations: If your distress resulted from the actions or negligence of a company or its employees, you might have grounds to sue the organization. This could apply in cases of workplace harassment, negligent security, or other situations where a business failed in its duty of care.
- Government Entities: In some cases, you may be able to sue government agencies or employees, although these cases often have additional legal hurdles. It’s important to note that there are often specific procedures and time limits for filing claims against government entities.
- Insurance Companies: A common question is, “Can I sue my insurance company for emotional distress?” While you typically can’t sue an insurance company directly for emotional distress, there are exceptions:
- If you’re suing for bad faith practices in handling your claim. For example, if an insurance company unreasonably delays or denies a valid claim, causing you significant distress.
- If you’re making an uninsured/underinsured motorist claim against your own insurance company. In these cases, your insurance company essentially steps into the shoes of the at-fault party.
Remember, even when insurance companies aren’t the direct defendant, they’re often involved in emotional distress cases. They may be responsible for defending their insured parties or paying out claims.
Unfortunately, suing an insurance company for negligence involves going up against the huge teams of attorneys and the inexhaustible resources of major insurance companies. Because they used to work for insurance companies, the insurance lawyers in Houston from Grimes & Fertitta know just what you’re up against, as well as how and when the insurance companies will attempt to deny you what you deserve.
Continue reading: Can you sue an insurance company for taking too long?
How to calculate emotional distress damages in Texas?
Emotional distress falls under the category of non-economic damages, which are one of the different types of legal damages available in Texas. Calculating emotional distress damages can be complex, as they don’t have a clear monetary value like medical bills or lost wages do.
When it comes to calculating emotional distress damages specifically, Texas courts consider several factors:
- Severity of the emotional distress
- Duration of the distress
- Cause of the distress
- Physical manifestations
- Psychological treatment
- Impact on daily life
There’s no set formula for calculating emotional distress damages in Texas. Instead, attorneys and insurance adjusters often use methods such as:
- Multiplier method: Economic damages are multiplied by a factor (typically between 1.5 and 5) based on the severity of the emotional distress.
- Per diem method: A daily rate is assigned to the emotional distress and multiplied by the number of days the plaintiff suffered.
- Comparable cases: Similar cases and their outcomes are used as a benchmark.
If you’re going to pursue emotional distress damages in a personal injury lawsuit, it’s important that you’re documenting all aspects of your emotional distress thoroughly. This includes collecting medical records, personal journal entries, testimonies from friends and family members, or expert witness testimonies.
The many reasons to sue the insurance company
Other than suing for emotional distress, there are a handful of scenarios in which you might have a legal basis for suing your insurance company. A few of the more common reasons are as follows.
- Can I sue my insurance company for negligence? Suing an insurance company for negligence requires that they somehow violated their duty of care to you, either by violating their contract, wrongly denying a claim, or otherwise not fulfilling their obligation to you.
- Can I sue my insurance company for bad faith? Because insurance companies are legally required to act in good faith when handling all claims, if you believe your insurance company acted in bad faith, you may be able to sue them. Bad faith occurs when an insurer unreasonably denies a claim, fails to adequately investigate a claim, or uses any sort of deceptive practices. Although there are differences between an insurer being negligent and an insurer acting in bad faith, both result in the same thing: you not getting the compensation that you deserve.
- Can you sue your insurance company for pain and suffering? If your insurance company’s negligence or bad faith has caused you emotional distress or pain and suffering, you may be able to take them to court and hold them accountable.
Emotional distress damages only come into play when the insurance company’s actions are particularly egregious, meaning you and your attorney will have to prove that they acted with particular malice or negligence in a way that harmed you far more than just the value of your erroneously denied claim.
How to sue an insurance company: first steps
Suing an insurance company after they wrongly denied your claim should be a simple process for you, with most of the complexities being sorted out by your personal injury attorney. The main steps involved in suing your insurance company are as follows:
- Gather evidence. Collect your insurance policy, claim correspondence, any communication between you and the insurance company, and any other documentation related to your claim. Additionally, any documentation or evidence related to the accident itself may prove vital to proving negligence of bad faith on the part of your insurance.
- Talk to an attorney. After you’ve gathered all the evidence that you can, consult with the best personal injury attorney that you can find. They can review the evidence and consult you on what to do next before actually filing a lawsuit and representing you in court.
- File a lawsuit. Typically, your attorney will first attempt to negotiate with the insurance company and inform them of your decision to take legal action. If the insurance company does not comply, your attorney will file a lawsuit and prepare to represent you in court.
It is entirely up to your attorney to prove that the insurance company wrongly denied your claim as well as, once it is established that the insurance company owes you personal injury damages, prove that you are owed damages for emotional distress.
Suing the insurance company for emotional distress? Make sure you’ve got the right emotional distress lawyer.
So, can you sue for emotional distress in Texas? Yes — but those looking to pursue an emotional distress lawsuit should be aware of the challenges and complexities involved, gather as much evidence as possible, and hire the best personal injury lawyer that they possibly can.
Although the path to receiving the compensation that you deserve may be a long one, you do not have to go at it alone. Personal injury attorneys exist not just to help you receive compensation, but to help you find closure and justice after a traumatic experience. And that’s just what our legal team here at Grimes & Fertitta will do.
We’re here to help. Call the Houston personal injury attorneys at Grimes & Fertitta today at 713-224-7644 or contact us online to schedule a consultation!
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